I started working when I was twelve. I made two dollars an hour as a bagger at the foodland in Vogelweh Germany.

Looking back, I wasn’t able to consent yet. I just wanted some money so I could buy punk albums and hashish. I was treated like shit and I had no sense of what was normal so I could not defend myself. I also learned a bunch of really shitty habits and fucked up in school (granted, I probably would have done that anyway). It was definitely an experience but not entirely a positive one. When my daughter was that age, I never even entertained the idea of letting her work.

The idea that work builds character or whatever for kids is deeply flawed. There are a lot of ways that it can go wrong. I also worked at a mud race track around that time picking up trash. There is an episode of King Of The Hill that captures how that worked out almost perfectly.